"The 33"-Road Bike RacingWe set this forum up for our members to discuss their experiences in either pro or amateur racing, whether they are the big races, or even the small backyard races. Don't forget to update all the members with your own race results.

15:58 CEST - 255 km/1 km to go
Zabel is in third wheel with 1 km to go. Freire hasn't made it through, although most of the top sprinters have.

Allan Peiper" Belgians moving up now. This is going to be a strong train too. We are going to look at the biggest sprint ever; all the big sprinters are there! This is better than any sprint in the Tour de France!"

16:00 CEST - 256 km/0 km to go
Petacchi leads with 500m to go, Lombardi gets ready to lead out. He does, with Cipo on his wheel. McEwen is right there. Cipollini goes early and wins in front of McEwen and Zabel. Fantastically strong sprint, and fantastic teamwork by the Italians. All of them salute as they see Cipollini cross the line with his arms raised.

Scott Sunderland "This was THE all time sprint of SPRINTS. Of all the Giro's, the Tour of France!!! Cipollini is the greatest world champion! He was going away from McEwen! He was absolutely SUPER."

Allan Peiper "A fantastic sprint; awesome, to big for words really. The strongest man in the peloton has won. Cipollini has stated his absolute supremacy, his 180th win! 35 years old! Bettini already had his arms in the air 150 metres away from the finish."

Time of Lap 20: 14.38 (52.48 km/h)
Total time after Lap 20: 5.30.03 (46.53 km/h)

I'm very happy for Mario. This combined with his win at Milan-San Remo, and, hopefully, enough stages in next year's Giro to break Binda's stage victory record should allow him to retire satisfied he has fulfilled his dreams.

Brent I don't think anybody carried the worlds live here in america..But you're right I think also that OLN is showing a 1 hour show of it on the 31st of october...You could probaby check the oln website for confirmation of that...It's olntv.com

All teams knew it would come down to a final sprint and the teams with top sprinters made sure it came to that and it did.

As business goes, it will be cool next year as knowing Mario, his team and clothing manufactuer we are instore for some great designs!

Too bad that USA didn't plan it as well as other teams by taking top sprinters. Of course sad to say we have none that can match the top sprinters in the world. At least not after racing some 250+ kms.

Ahh finally,somebody who appreciates cipo's colors also!! I have to agree with xavier, sounds like you appreciate cipo's clothes and designs as well. I really love them, and look forward to what he'll come up with next..I always look forward to each Giro prologue, because I want to see what skinsuit he'll bring out, those are the best!!..But you're right it'll be cool to see what he does with the world champion colors.

I liked what specialized did for him, in creating that world championship colored bike, that he'll be riding in tomorrow's giro de lombaria